Anger
by Avatarone3
Summary: Coming back from the trip to the Firbending masters, Aang finds out that an old enemy is out to kill him, and will stop at nothing to get him, including kidnapping Katara! Oneshot, kinda. a little Kataang, mostly adventure


Aang groaned as he finished the Dancing Dragon forms once more, for what seemed like the hundredth time that afternoon. Ever since he and Zuko had come back from the Sun Warrior ruins, it had been nothing but train, and breathe and focus, and train, and train some more. The young airbender had never known how admirable a master and teacher the ex-Prince was, and he respected him for it, but now it was getting on his nerves, and said like many times beforehand, considerably in the last hour, he had been training his arrow off.

As the boy brought in his chi, he fell to the ground in a relaxed kneeling position, taking in a deep airbender breath and scowling at the older boy standing over him.

"Drill it again."

"Zuko, I'm tired."

"I don't care. Do it again."

"No."

"Aaaang…"

"Zuko," he sighed, looking up scornfully. "I'm not doing it again. I'm hungry and exhausted. Not to mention we've been doing it for hours!"

"You want to perish against my father?"

"No…." Aang gave him a questioning look.

"Then keep practicing!"

The two glared and growled menacingly at one another, neither backing down, until Toph bent them into the ground.

"Will you two ladies stop arguing? Geez, you sound like a couple of sheep-pigs sounding the alarm!!!"

"Toph, let us go!" Zuko muttered, frozen up to his ankles in the ground. Aang smirked at him, bending himself back up out of the ground and bending over the young man. He pointed.

"Po Zuko's got his wittle wegs stuck in the mud?"

"Aaaaang… you're dead! Toph!"

"Whatever, girlies." Toph bent him out of the ground, and Zuko lunged toward Aang, yelling out his frustration.

"Aahh!" the young Avatar cried, ducking out of his reach and running away. Zuko took after him.

"Get back here, punk!"

"No!"

Sokka came up and joined the smirking Toph, and he stared lazily out towards the two running back and forth, the older chasing the younger.

"What are they DOING?"

The little blind earthbender turned to him with a sly smile. "Firebending practice."

A while later, after Toph once more had to break up the fight, she, Zuko, and Sokka went off to go eat dinner that Katara had prepared, while Aang went to feed the giant bison sitting in a corner of the temple.

Aang patted him. "You hungry boy?" he gently asked as he stroked Appa's nose tenderly, and the bison gave him a full body lick with his giant washcloth tongue. The boy laughed. "I'll take that as a yes!"

Quickly Aang bent a giant gust of wind underneath the hay pile a few feet away, lifting it up and tossing it to the hungry ten-ton animal, who began eating almost immediately. The boy smiled and filled the water bucket nearby as well, humming as he worked, while the sky behind them was turning a deep purple, orange, and red, with the yellow-white sun finally dissolving its light and warmth for the night. He hugged his friend and began to walk toward the camp, smiling to himself. Another night of fun and relaxation, good food and laughter. Him being with those he loved.

But then it came, no warning at all.

"Aang!" a man's voice suddenly cried out in his head. The young avatar stopped dead in his tracks. "Aang!" it cried out again, and he spun around. No one was around but Appa, who didn't seem to hear the noise. "Aang!" it cried again, and Aang's eyes widened as he held his head in his hands. Some one was calling him, from the inside. And he recognized the voice.

"Roku? What's wrong?" he cried out, but immediately, the cries stopped. His heart starting to race, Aang sat down right where he was and focused his energy. He felt his eyelids go black before him, shutting out all light except for the dim one underneath his heavy eyes that slowly grew. He opened them, looking up to complete darkness except for a stray candle, and the previous Avatar above it.

"Aang…" he breathed heavily, his eyes widened in sadness and fear. "You must defend yourself at all costs, do you hear me?"

"Roku, what ARE you talking about?!"

The older Avatar bowed his head. "Aang, Koh has escaped from the Spirit World. All spirits know of the others' thoughts, and once he had his mind set, we all knew. We had no choice but to imprison him, but he's escaped."

"Why did you imprison him?"

"Spirits cannot kill other spirits, Aang. But they can kill humans and animals, yet only if they're in the Spirit World. And so Koh's plan to get back at one of the previous Avatar incarnations for trying to slay him was to go after you. He planned to capture you and kill you while in the Avatar state, so he would finally live in peace."

Aang gulped. "So what do I do?"

"Do not go into the Spirit World at all costs. And if a spirit takes over your body, beg of your friends to hold you down. Aang, DO NOT GO IN THE SPIRIT WORLD. At ANY cost. That even includes ones Koh may steal to get at you."

Aang's face clouded. "What do you mean?"

"He will bait you. And wait."

"But--" Aang whispered, his eyes widening. "No…" He gasped and started running away from the light.

"No Aang!" Roku called, but the boy didn't stop. He opened his eyes once more in fear and shock, and he leapt from his seated position back at the Western Air Temple, running to find the others.

He ran so fast that after colliding into Zuko and having him nearly scorch him again, Aang made it to the campsite. He was out of breath and sweating, and Toph gave him a weird look. "What's wrong with you, Sprinty?"

Sokka turned from stirring the soup. "Aang?" he faintly whispered, seeing the fear and shock in the boy's face. "What's the matter?"

Aang's eyes shifted over the whole campsite, looking for the one person he hoped was there. She wasn't.

"Where-where's Katara???"

Sokka stood up swiftly, anger in his eyes. "Why? What's going on?"

"Sokka, where is she?!"

"In her room, why?"

"YOU LET HER GO ALONE???!!!"

Sokka's eyes widened, in shock and more anger. "What? Why? Aang, what's going on?" He yelled, fists clenched.

Aang didn't hear him as he swiftly turned, and ready to start running, he stopped in midstep as a girl's scream pierced the air. His heart beat wildly and his breathing became raspy. In the last year he had met her, he had never known her to scream in fear. It had always been a yell or a fake scream. But this was very different. Pure fear. Something terrible had happened, and right then, Aang feared for Katara's life. At her scream, his entire being went cold. He froze in his tracks and turned with complete shock to see Sokka, Toph, and Zuko's faces go completely pale, and the airbender took off as fast as his legs would carry him to her room.

"Aang!!!" Katara screamed from behind the door, where he moved to open it, and when he did, his eyes widened. He reached out.

"Katara!!!!!" he cried, reaching out for her and just in time to see her scream his name one more time as she was dragged on the floor away from him into a deep jet black hole broken into the wall.

"NOOOOO!" he cried out, running for her, grabbing her hand just as she slipped entirely through the wall, and as soon as she disappeared from view, the wall closed up, making him hit it full on with an "oomph!" and fall backwards, lying faceup. Dark spots clouded his vision as well as pain, but he shook it away as he gasped and sat up. Where the hole had been was now just a normal wall, no indentations that anything had happened.

Except that she was gone.

He moved to sit up, holding his pounding head and staring in shock and wonder at the wall, unsure if it was really possible. Everything that Roku had warned, everything that he had ever cared about, had come true and, and now, she was gone. The Avatar now crouched over, his head hanging in sorrow, feeling the hot tears starting to prickle in his eyes.

The other three made it to the room, breathless and completely unaware. But Sokka was the first to see him. At the sight of his best friend, confusion, sadness, anger, and fear for his sister hit him all at once full on, and he walked up to the boy.

"Aang," he whispered in ragged breaths, "where is she?"

The avatar felt the anger deep within his soul catch like a spark, but now with his best friend, his love, his everything, gone, it began to grow, past unspoken heat and unending fury. His anger boiled to above anything he had ever felt. Pure malice and hatred shot over his face, his eyebrows turned downward, his nose and upper lip curled up into a snarl. He looked up, stood up with his fists clenched so tightly that his firebending shot sparks and his knuckles turned white, and turned towards the three behind him. Sokka and Zuko's eyes widened in fear, and Toph took a step back.

"Aang?"

None of them had ever seen this side of him, and at him staring back with fire-filled thunderstorm-grey eyes, they all backed away.

"Koh…" Aang snarled. "Koh took her…"

His upper lip quivered, showing his fury, and suddenly, his tattoos changed from blue to pure white, as did his eyes. A strong wind began to spin around the room, throwing miscellaneous objects, papers, and dust everywhere. The three shielded their eyes from the human-made storm as Aang yelled angrily in the old Avatar State, the one he couldn't control. As he fisted his left hand, the wall cracked, and a brilliant light shone through the fissures in the wall. Aang punched his right hand forward into the wall, and immediately, the pieces broke away, shooting farther back as the black hole appeared again. He walked slowly towards it amidst the wind and the rubble, but Sokka saw him.

"Aang NO!!!"

But the Avatar didn't hear him, nor did he look back as he jumped in, making his way to the Spirit World.

The journey didn't take very long to get to the place he'd wished he'd never have to come back to, but remembering what he had to go through, Aang pushed it all aside as he marched to the hollowed tree within the ground. He made no stop at the cave's entrance, but Roku touched him.

"No, Aang. He will steal your face if you go in like that. Worse. You have no bending. And he will KILL you!"

But even though he was a past avatar, Roku couldn't hold the new Avatar back in place, and so all he could do was pray as the boy entered the cave.

"KOH!" Aang screamed, his anger growing with each passing second. "Show yourself!"

His glowing eyes caught the movement of a large beast curling and uncurling its long centipede body around what looked like its prey, which struggled and moaned. The boy could still hear that mysterious laughter that the spirit had. But at the sound of his name, the creature threw its prey to the ground with a hard thud, and Aang looked down.

It was Katara's body.

She didn't move. She didn't make a sound. She just lay there, facedown, sprawled out, as if she were dead, and for a moment, Aang truly thought she was. But his face turned upward to the centipede, etched in anger and pure fury, and he clenched his fists as the spirit turned. And now, where all its faces were, the young Avatar had to stare into the eyes of his young best friend, her face stolen away, her outward identity taken. But the anger glowing out of his white eyes was clearly shown to the face that was no longer Katara.

"Well Avatar," Katara's mouth moved, but Koh's voice called out and rang in the silence, "it seems that you are more naïve than I guessed. Even your past life tried to warn you, and you were too ignorant to listen. I knew that would work. Everyone who loves someone always has the fear of losing them, and that's just what I did, to get you to come to me. And it worked."

Aang snarled viciously, his fists becoming tighter. "LET HER GO."

"And you're probably wondering why I haven't taken your face yet," Katara's face and Koh's voice moved on, ignoring the Avatar. "Well, I see no point in taking your face if you're dead, because then it would remind me of you. And I certainly don't want that." Katara's face turned upwards into a sly, satanic smile, something she would never do in real life, and deep down, it gave Aang chills. "I'll just have to settle on getting rid of you any way possible."

Aang took a large step forward, his eyes burning brightly along with his tattoos, and he growled low in his throat.

"No no no," Koh teasingly said, grabbing Katara's body off the ground and lifted her high into the air. "You make one move and I'll kill her."

Aang stopped. "You wouldn't!" he cried in anger.

"I'll do what I must to destroy you." The malicious spirit took Katara's body far into the air above the boy's head.

"No," the Avatar whispered, falling to his knees. "I'll give of myself. Just please. Don't hurt her."

Katara's face smiled viciously. "What makes you think that I won't keep her when you're gone? And there's nothing you can do to stop me."

The anger exploded once more inside him, a burning, unquenchable heat, shocking him and filling him down to his core. The pain of losing a loved one--again--was too much, and Aang glared unmercifully towards the spirit. He knew he had no bending here, but if he could find at least one weapon, he swore that it would be the end of Koh.

Looking around, the only things he spotted were some sharp tree roots, the stalactites, and… Koh's legs. Of course. Each of those legs was a deadly dagger. Aang remembered the first time he visited Koh. The spirit had touched the boy's shoulder, and even thought it was a light tap, Aang still felt stinging pain. He knew that he had to destroy Koh, and fast. Determined and angry, the young avatar kept his eyes on the monster as he began his circle walking, with Koh moving ever the same direction, Katara's deceiving eyes never leaving his.

It was now or never.

Aang ran up to Koh, and suddenly pushing up and off from the side of his face, flipped up and over onto his back. Not even expecting that move, Koh screamed and hissed in agony at his new rider, flipping over and over, twisting and turning, anything to get the anger-infused avatar off his back, screaming angrily, each one of his legs twisting and trying to grab the Avatar, but failing, and the boy held on for dear life.

And reaching out for the nearest one he could find, Aang grabbed one of Koh's legs at the base. Pulling as hard as he could, Koh's leg came surprisingly easy, but the blood and pain that followed for the spirit made him even more determined to throw off the boy. But Aang had the leg, and holding it in two hands, raised it over his head and threw it down, striking at the base of Koh's skull, underneath the armored plates.

Koh hissed and screamed in pain and agony, writhing and moaning, cursing the boy, but Aang only stabbed harder and more frequently. The spirit fell to the ground, sliding on his belly, and flipping over, trying to rid himself of the pain in his head, and Aang was thrown off, his eyes and tattoos still glowing as he hit the ground with enough force to make an indent. Aware that his attacker was thrown, Koh glared and hissed angrily through Katara's face, sliding like lightning to the boy. Rising up on his hind legs, seeing his prey defenseless, the centipede spirit screamed and bore down on Aang, ready to finish him.

Aang yelled angrily as he shoved the dagger leg forward into the monster, as deep as it would go. And that stopped Koh. The monster looked down at his own leg deep in his heart, and he glared with rapidly glazing eyes deep into the boy's.

"Avatar!" he screeched in pain, blood pumping from the wound onto the ground, but this blood wasn't crimson red. It was blue. Glowing blue. Aang stared at it as Koh's eyes completely glazed over and fell to the side, twitching from his oncoming death, while Aang stood and ran over to Katara's body.

"Katara!" the avatar cried, still in the Avatar State, as he flipped her over and fell over himself. Her face was still gone. Aang looked up in anger towards the dying spirit, and he marched over and yanked another one of Koh's arms off. The spirit screeched and curled inward, but Aang cut the monster open, slicing him until the glowing blue flowed out clear. He stabbed Koh fully with the leg again, but as he looked closer, the glowing blue liquid was filled with faces. Ones he'd seen before, ones he hadn't, faces of the immortal and mortal world alike flowing out and collecting at his feet.

"Aang…"

The still-glowing avatar turned, seeing Roku standing behind him with a smile. The young Avatar sighed shakily, but bowed. "It is over."

"Yes. But you must take her and leave quickly, for when spirits die in this world, they disintegrate and explode into the air, leaving only dust."

"But I'm not leaving until all of her is completely back to her."

"If Koh is dead, all the faces he has stolen for thousands of years will be returned to their owners. Believe me, Aang. You need to get out of here!"

The Avatar nodded, and picking up the still limp body of his best friend and shifting her into his arms, began to run for the entrance. He saw the light from the spirit's body behind him cast shadows on the walls, and running faster, just reached the opening of the cave when an explosion threw him and Katara forward out of the cave, rolling down the hill and hitting the swamp land below.

He opened his eyes wide, staring at the sepia-toned sky. Sitting up, he saw Katara's still body lying next to him, but he let her rest as he stared upwards and around him. Roku's spirit appeared and sat next to him as every face that had been stolen was now finding its original owner. Animals and humans alike, faceless, came to that spot where the gnarled tree cave was, and each face found its home. Aang smiled exceptionally when the beautiful girl whose face Koh had stolen walked out, smiling. She was no doubt a waterbender judging by her clothing and skin color, and looking everywhere for a certain person, she smiled gratefully at Aang.

"Ummi!" a man's voice cried out behind Aang and Roku, and both turning to see who it was, they smiled as Avatar Kuruk ran with tears in his eyes to his love. The young woman ran as well, and knocking him over in an embrace transcending centuries, they kissed and caressed each other, holding on to the other like nothing could ever rip them apart again.

The boy smiled, happy that everyone and everything was at peace, but he then felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Thank you, my boy."

Aang turned and stared into the young man's face that he had seen before the last time he had seen Koh. The man who was a splitting image of an older man Aang knew.

He bowed to the man. "You are very welcome. And you are?"

"I am Master Lu Ten, young Avatar, son of Iroh of the Fire Nation."

Aang smiled. "I personally know Iroh. He's a friend of mine, as is your cousin, Zuko."

Lu Ten smiled. "He's been trying to rescue me ever since I perished in the war, and Koh took me prisoner. Please tell him, now, I am at peace, thanks to you."

"I will," Aang said as he bowed, and the older man bowed back. "I am proud to help."

Lu Ten's spirit disappeared, and Aang looked up, his eyes not glowing in anger, but still his arrows did. "Roku," he whispered. "I'm done here."

The fire bender Avatar smiled and bowed. "You've brought the Spirit World back into order. We are honored."

Aang smiled and bowed as well, picking up Katara in his arms, and he looked down at her body. "I need to get home."

"I can do that for you," Roku said, touching the tree next to them, and a black opening in the wood spread out to a doorway. "Until I call you again."

Aang nodded and stepped in, and the blackness closed around them.

Light sprang into his view as the other side was opened from the wall, and an unknown force shoved him forward, making him trip and fall, but it shoved him into the light. He fell forward, falling over Katara, and the light blinded him as he hit a hard floor surface.

"Aang?" Sokka's worried voice was a blur in his head as he groaned.

"Aang?" Sokka asked worriedly as he rubbed his eyes in shock. His best friend and his sister just fell out of the wall, unconscious maybe? And he was afraid. He ran to Aang's side, putting his hand on the boy, as his tattoos stopped glowing and he groaned. Sokka rolled him onto his back. "Aang, you okay?"

He groaned as his eyes fluttered. "S-Sokka?" he whispered, but his eyes widened and he gasped, sitting up. "Katara!"

"She's right next to you, Aang," Zuko said as he walked up with Toph.

Aang looked next to him, where Katara was still lying facedown. He touched her arm, and with no response, he took her in his arms and turned her over. He sighed a huge sigh of relief when he saw her beautiful face back to normal. He softly traced over her outline, smiling to himself.

"Is she okay?" Toph whispered, but Aang made no answer as he shook her.

"Katara?" he whispered. "Katara?"

Just then she stirred. She groaned and her eyelids twitched, opening to see her best friend's grey eyes staring into her own, and they widened. She began to breathe heavily, her eyes widening as she shifted her gaze back and forth in his eyes.

"Aang…Aang…" she whispered, finding his hand and squeezing it to the point of him losing circulation. He stared at her.

"It's okay," he whispered. "You're fine. I brought you ba--"

He was interrupted by Katara throwing her arms around him, pulling him close to her shaking body, her heartbeat rushing against his.

"What-what ever that was that just happened to me," she whispered, grabbing his shirt front glaring at him, "I really don't wanna know."

Aang smiled and let out the breath he was holding. "Heh," he grabbed her in a tight hug, holding her close, and she was more than happy to return it. "I don't think you do."

As he helped her sit up and they both stood up and brushed themselves off, Toph smirked.

"Sooo…" she smirked, "Have fun in the Spirit World, did we?"


End file.
